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From: carnes@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Red plot foiled at govt. agency (OSHA)
Message-ID: <466@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-May-85 17:08:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.466
Posted: Fri May 24 17:08:56 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 25-May-85 09:03:29 EDT
Organization: U. Chicago - Computer Science
Lines: 38

In article <> mms1646@acf4.UUCP (Michael M. Sykora) writes:

>There's a simple solution to all of this  --  get rid of OSHA.

One thing for which I admire libertarians is their ability to come up
with a simple solution for almost any problem you can name.  Mike
points out that you can get rid of all the problems associated with
the existence of OSHA by getting rid of OSHA.  How come we never
think of these things.  

The 1984 Libertarian Party platform makes a similar recommendation:

	We call for the repeal of the OSH Act.  This law denies the
	right to liberty and property to both employer and employee,
	and it interferes in their private contractual relations.  
	OSHA's arbitrary and highhanded actions invade property
	rights, raise costs, and are an injustice imposed on 
	business.

Heaven forbid we should impose an injustice on business, but what
about the problems of worker safety and health that OSHA was intended
to address?  Millions of workers are daily exposed to such toxic
substances as lead, cyanide, silica dust, cotton dust, pesticides,
asbestos, and radioactive materials, and many workers are required to
risk their physical safety in various ways.  

According to my understanding, libertarians deeply deplore the fact
that thalidomide was not allowed to be marketed in the US; they
profoundly regret the fact that crib safety standards have interfered
with the right of infants to strangle themselves; and they are
outraged by government-imposed safety standards for both airlines and
nuclear power plants.  Does this antiregulatory stance extend to the
prohibition of all workplace safety and health regulation as well?  

Let us have [trumpets, please] the Libertarian Solution to the
problems of occupational risk.  And make sure it's a simple one.

Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes